Thoughts:

Inside LOVE LIKE A ROCK by Allison Kohn, we uncover a Western Historical tale about coming home, lessons from the past, new friends, old friends, and true love!

It’s 1865 and the Civil War had come to its end and three cousins had been in the middle of it all. Only two survived. The tattered remnants of the Civil War are returning home, but winter isn’t far off and home won’t come into sight until spring.

Linda (nee Baker) had met a wounded family friend and former Union soldier in Nat Thomas, but in Phillip Jensen, she’d meet her husband. It wasn’t a marriage the way one would have dreamed it to be, but in meeting this Confederate Private, saved by her friend, love was easy to discover as she worked in the South’s hospitals and saw the ravages of this war.

Nat with an injury and the newly married couple begin their trek not sure how long before they’d arrive at their destination. However, it’s the adventures they have, the circumstances they face, and the people they meet adding more suspense and danger to the daunting trip!

You’ll find an enjoyable love story where God’s word is central throughout and lessons of tolerance, faith, and endurance are aligned in the trials of these amazing characters.

***This opinion is my own.***

Preview:

Allison Kohn provides a brief history of the Baker Family as a lead into the standalone sixth book of the Baker Family Saga, LOVE LIKE A ROCK.

Linda Jenson has seen the Civil War injured and dying, but this war is over, although peace wasn’t to be had as another war that has been smoldering with the American Indians and the white man became heated and raging. The Civil War had put family against friend, but freedom has been won and fences need to be mended even though much of the intolerance still exists and has ventured into the Indian community.

Thankfully, she was going home, and she’s bringing with her an injured friend along with her new husband to the Willamette Valley in Ferndale, Oregon. Through it all, Linda struggles to understand how this all seems to keep happening, but she grows in faith both in God and in her husband.

It’s a hard life as they travel back paths to keep safe from the battles raging elsewhere, but this group meets some helpful friends and many foes along their way.

Linda’s situation becomes happier and harder with the expectation of her first child, but it’s mid winter and a quiet fort is becoming a dangerous place despite her labor pains that just won’t wait. Indians who could be their enemies become the ones to help this group the most.

However, it’s the dangers that still lay ahead that make a homecoming seem so very far off!